i never could find the source. but it is in my book. [laughter] as an unquoted source. it's not mine, but the quote starts the chapter in the very beginning that texas is heaven for men and dogs, hell for women and horses. [laughter] >> any other questions? >> i'd like to ask you, what was the most difficult issue that you felt you had to deal with in the senate? >> oh. >> the men. [laughter] [applause] >> no. you know, there were -- immigration reform, very difficult. negotiating the wright amendment, the lifting of the wright amendment, are difficult. i mean, very difficult.

you would get one piece settled, and something else would cop out. same thing with immigration reform, it was very hard. um, always, always when you vote to give the president permission to send our troops into combat, which we did in iraq because we were told that there were weapons of mass destruction that could be delivered, that's always a hard, tough vote. so there are, you know, there are so many times that you're struggling with, you know, two issues, two sides of an issue that both have great merit. but those are mine, some of the hardest. >> one more question. jeff? >> um, i just want to say thank you for all of your hard work for all the years and everything that you've done for not only the area, not only the metroplex, but the state of

texas. the way that you represent our state is like nobody else. >> thank you. >> i mean, i'm so proud of you and the work that you've done. and i say thank you. we have a teenage niece, and by father-in-law's granddaughter who looks up, who actually looks up to you. and who's, you know, she's 16, 17 years old. and so you, you know, you may not realize, you may not realize it today, but you will have a lasting effect on the state. and for that i say thank you. >> we all say thank you. [applause] >> booktv is on facebook. like us to interact with booktv guests and viewers. watch videos and get up-to-date information on events. facebook.com/booktv. >> it was a small airport back in the 20s, and the military

came and established a training base in the, during the second world war. and it was a very active base. and it was quite an attribute to yuma until after the second world war ended, and it closed, and everybody left. and the little town of yuma had about 9 towrkz population, and that was -- 9,000 population, and that was dwindling because people were -- there was no construction going. tourism had not yet been established as an interesting thing for yuma, and the town had not a very bright future. with a population of 9,000 and dwindling, the junior chamber of commerce said something has to be done. we have to attract teangs to our good -- attention to our good weather and try to get the air base reactivated. today came up with an endurance flight, because every time the flight would be mentioned, they would say yuma, arizona. and get the military interested in reactivating the air base. so their first attempt failed. and then again in august they tried again, and they stayed up

several days, and then they had another major problem. and it was hot, you know? it's really hot here. people said you're not going to try -- oh, yeah, we'll go up to 2 or 3,000 feet, we'll be where it's cool. so it took a few months to get parts and repairs down for the airplane and get it ready, but then they took off on the 24th of august, and they never touched the ground until the 10th of october. >> in late 1949 the future of yuma, arizona, was resting on the wings of one airplane. this weekend the history and literary life of yuma, arizona. today at noon eastern on booktv on c-span2. and sunday at 5 p.m. on american history tv on c-span3. >> and now, david kirp profiles the union city, new jersey, public school system, once one of the worst school systems in the state. union city now graduates 90% of its high school students, and 60% of them go to college. mr. kirp argues that these gains

have been achieved by an emphasis on early education, supportive teachers and outreach to parents. this is about an hour, ten minutes. >> creation and eventually wind down the division that was implementing the court decisions. it's clear that i'm not an educator, and i didn't know what to do. but fortunately, i had spent some time in union city, and i had discovered that even though this is in hudson county, even though that this was a story that needed to be told, and i used union city as an example for the other 30 districts. and thank god for union city. i wouldn't have known what to do otherwise. but david and i are here tonight to talk about this very important book.

it's very important in union city, but this is a book that's important for the well country. and in talking about it, i want to start with a pizza party. a pizza party that took place today i think at washington school, is that right? is. >> washington school. >> with so here we have this scholar-author from berkeley, california, who's come to union city to throw a pizza party. and i'd like, i'd like this scholar-author to explain himself. david? >> well, i was lucky enough to get to spend a year here many union -- in union city, and it's really been a transformative experience for me. a lot of that time i was in washington school. i was told that i was going to be in washington elementary school and shared that news with one of the architects of the transformation, he said to me, god, union city must really be confident, they're sending you

to washington school. it's not one of the elite schools, it's kind of an ordinary school. and i spent a lot of time in room 210, the third grade classroom, with kids -- [applause] and iowa lee ya, would you stand up and -- [applause] and that's where i was mr. david to that group of kids. i'm sure it's a very -- eighth graders -- 8-year-olds are a very affectionate group of folks. i'd be mobbed so much that elena and i would work out this little plan, okay, table one, you go mob mr. david. so pizza party became kind of a tradition. and so today i was doing a public tv show, and i'm here tonight, but in a lot of ways the best part of the day was the pizza party that i threw for those kids who are now fifth graders and who, i said i'm going to stick around in your lives for a good while.

so stories that i tell in the book starts there. and it works its way up the ladder. and it starts there because the very heart of what any good school system has to do is to connect talentedded teachers -- talented teachers, engage students in a challenging curriculum. that's the nub. everything else builds out from there. so that's, that's why i was there. and it's where the emotional bond was formed. but as you know, i roam far and wide beyond that, beyond that school. and i had the pleasure of getting to write about it in this book. >> so this is a very stubborn topic in american life. it's been something that -- it is a, why aren't we doing a better job educating kids from

poor families with they go to school only with other kids from poor families? and we've been talking about this for a half century. there have been thousands of books written about it, there have been scores of commissions formed to analyze and report on it, and there have been, as sandy mentioned, there have been lots of silver bullets proposed. and for teachers and principals in city school districts et seems like -- it seems like there's a new fad every 18 months that comes from are washington or trenton, and they say that this is the answer. in improbable scholars, the information seems to be the kind of indisputable work and practice and objectives that nobody could argue with, so why is it so hard? why -- first of all, why is it worst the book to point out things that seem like almost platitudes? >> well, i thought about calling the book tortoise beat withs --

beats hare because it's telling a story that hasn't been told in a long time. if you, if you read the media or watch tv, gonna check out the blogs on the web, it's all about crisis, it's all about problems, it's all about what isn't working, and it is about magic bull bullets. it's about let's shut these failing schools, let's get rid of these no-account teachers, let's bring in teach for america folks, let's open up a whole lot of charter schools in the district. and that's the model or the idea that's been propagated for the be last decade plus under a republican administration and a democratic administration. it is just the latest in a series of silver bullets that people have offered up. the latest version of you can just change the structure, and everything else changes. but i think what union city

teaches is -- or reminds better is that there are a handful of time-tested, well-proven, well-established, game-changing strategies that a school destruct can adopt. and why -- i'll say a word about that in a minute, but why write about them? pause people seem -- because people seem to have forgotten them. what i'm going to tell you now, as gordon says, it is almost like platitudes. any educator with a pulse hearing what i'm about to say will nod his or her head and say, sure. but the trick is to actually go from saying, yeah, that's a great idea to actually making it happen. so in union city you start with an amazing preschool system. and i know susie row has is here some place or other in the audience. susie rojas -- where are you, susie? [applause] i spent a fair amount of time in

susie's class, preschool class at has it is a. i walked in her, and i thought, god, why am i not 3 years old? this is so much -- this is so cool. [laughter] i mean, anything that any kid of whatever age might want to do is going on there. and i watched a lesson last time i was there. i watched a lesson about the making of last connection. and for those of you for whom that's not a familiar world, their potato pancakes. and a hanukkah tradition, jewish hanukkah tradition. and the can kids had read a great story about an old lady who, you know, is making latkes. it's great story. but the lesson was these kids, these 3 and 4-year-olds were actually going to make latkes and cooking on a real, honest to god stove. but every aspect of that lesson from the picking up of the

potato to cooking it, the onion, what did it change when they cooked it, this is a big spoon, what cothey call this? -- do they call this? everybody learned how to hand chop the vegetables, chopping the potatoes, chopping the onions. the p sound in the pimentos the same as the p sound in pepper. and all the way on. what do you think's going to happen when we put this in the food processer? let's find out. teachers, and i spend most of my time teaching, dream about teachable moments. every second of that lesson was a teachable moment. and i came back, i went roaming around and visiting other classrooms, and susie said the latkes are ready, do you want to try some? i said, sure. i was hungry. and i took a plate, and i grabbed one, and there was sour cream and applesauce which are the traditional things that you

serve with latkes. and this is a latino community, so what do you think was also being served with the latkes? salsa. [laughter] and let me tell you, salsa actually improves latkes. [laughter] i'm giving up on applesauce, and i'm substituting sal that. [laughter] -- salsa. so throughout this conversation i'd like to intersperse stories like that, and i think that that at a time when people are focused on systems, they're focused on politics, they're foxed on what i think of as adult games, power play games, i don't know if you know this, but in los angeles recently there was a hotly-con tested school board election. thank goodness, by the way, you don't have school board elections here so you don't have to go through that nightmare. $4 million was spent to defeat one candidate who had, whose sin was that he'd questioned the endless growth of charter schools and wondered if teachers should be entirely evaluated on the basis of students' test scores. so in a world this which that

kind of adult game playing where the kids get forgotten is what the conversation looks like, where people talk about the market as a model as though selling education is like, you know, selling ipads. the union city story is an old story, and it's a neglected story. and it needs to be revived. and let me say one other thing. it's -- the book is in many ways a celebration of union city, but it's not just union city that has done so well. i've looked around the country at other districts that nobody knows about. ever hear of baldene, texas? it's houston's poor cousin. ..

a really rich bilingual program that pays attention to kids language and how well kids are doing academic subjects and is not today bilingual and tomorrow english only. so many districts, the reason they are bilingual, day one. but here the kids transition slowly, this school district knows what educator is no. it is important to get a grounding in your home language.

the only way to hold on to that language, being bilingual is a huge advantage. a lot of the kids in union city come from homes where there are not a lot of books around where parents are working all the time and make the meals and take care of the kids. they don't have time to read to them. there's not a lot of rich language in the home school system, you better so these kids in words. lots of great literature, lots of stuff to read, all sorts of writing. you want to get kids the on demand sad glad vocabularies. there are teachers in the audience and administrators, teachers are basically about

punching bags and that is a very sad immoral story for short-term political gain, it does a great profession. and a student needs to be helped. teachers struggling have problems. it provides information to help the schools help the teachers get better. a lot of talk about how america needs to bring in teachers from the elite schools and from the top of their classes, most of the folks in union city are lifers. that is to say grew up around

here, moved here as kids from cuba or greece or someplace else but once here, stay within 50 miles of the place, went to local schools that nobody outside the east coast would know anything about. when i go into one of those classes, a lot of very good teaching and amazing teaching, deserves to be in a documentary of good teaching. it didn't just happen. it happened because of -- teachers work together. that is another part of the story. we have principles who build a culture out of buildings so teachers aren't working in isolation, they are working together. and you have got an administration, central administration that has figured out how to trade out of the system of schools where people are doing their own thing, a

school system, common curriculum so with families move from one neighborhood to another, children get what is going on in school. and there is ownership. and is called face-to-face meetings, twice the year, knowing reaction, they all know too well about face-to-face meetings. twice a year every school in the district, superintendent, top administrators come and spend morning or afternoon with the principal and chief administrators in the school and the discussion is always the same. where have you been? what is working and where do they need to go.

a great preschool curriculum, free high school curriculum brought it down to three words, plan, do, union city face-to-face meetings take a preschool curriculum and apply it to language around the system, if it works for preschoolers why not adults? they talk about continuous improvement. you keep your eye on the ball and keep focusing, paying attention. and you are never done. this school system has gotten better and better and better, slowly, not dramatically, some folks in new jersey knew about the system before but lots of people are going to know what they're going to learn is toward -- i remember when i was here,

john will recall this moment all too well, at the face to face john presented a lot of the data, very characteristically well organized, impressive, impeccable presentation. and sandy saying your to david, you have been around awhile, do you have anything to say? had a loss for words, something to say which was union city, union city high is a greater been a high school. that is wonderful. i want to come back here in five years and hear people talk about union city as a great high school. no excuses for the fact that it is in this tough city and everything i know about this high school says that it is well on its way to that.

takes a long time and it takes one more thing. that is the engagement of this community of a mayor or mayor who never sleeps, whose phone number you will find in the book and handed down on his business card, you might as well have an easy hand. striving around the city, what a great little area. what is that plaza doing their. because of the mayor who is very effective here, gets to talk about these schools as bragging rights in trenton, gets to bring home the bacon that we are in the middle of, pretty good. not bad. you get a community that is engaged in the schools and that

didn't happen by accident. you go back 25 years ago, people would have talked about union city as a case study of how to fail urban latino kids. students were doing so badly academically the state was about to take over the school. it was about to do what it has just done to camden this week and most people, many people don't know, it took a lot of planning and system building to get from here to there and took a very supportive political world and a very engaged community. there are many different groups and i was saying to my visitor, all the latino cultures and a

hasidic jewish community and a muslim community, really? in this little place? lots is going on. the measure of people's commitment to this school, could have to do with parent liaisons in washington school. and every one of those families, the kid comes in the school-age or is on the phone and something happening there. if a parent can't afford a winter coat and having problems getting a green card, they know they can go to maria, and the first-time, first month i was here, of months into the trend, it was -- and umbrella was useless kind of night. nobody is going to come to

parents night. there wasn't an empty seat. i would guess 90% of those kids have a parent or grandparent or an aunt or uncle close to that. the key to this, and good teaching didn't happen. good education didn't just happen. before working to build, to realize how important early education was at a time when lots of superintendents and other places, just babysitting, school districts figured out early that is the essential starting point. keep developing, keep changing, keep adapting, keep working. people say to me what is the secret? the secret is do the work, hard,

tough work. you can read the music. >> you are a dangerous person. here you are after national conversation which is emphasized that school districts cannot be trusted, urban districts in particular are not to be trusted. they can't do the work, they are bureaucrats who stumble over each other and send out memos nobody pays attention to and don't deal with problems of the kids or the teachers. now you are saying the district has got to the central in changing the way schools work, without the district taking some leadership providing the data, compare the data, working with teachers, developing the curriculum, figuring out what works with kids and what doesn't.

this is dangerous stuff. >> you can't do it by remote control. you can't do it from trenton. if it was not in that school districts, the dedication and commitment is not going to have enough, and you can leave any school district on its own and life is going to be great, otherwise camden would not be in the fix that it is in. i do think my experience is if you place trust and confidence in people and you are willing to help them, they are more likely than not to rise to the occasion. and charter schools, there are some really great charter

schools. kids do a fabulous job educating kids but to educate a fraction of 1% overall charter schools don't do any better or worse than public-school but the more important point is they don't have the bandwidth. you can't build entire -- sixteen million kids, sixty million kids, we don't have any choice. we have to rely on public schools and one of the ironies is all those people, i hope i am not pleasant threat to that at least, not a vicious threat. all those folks who say what is going on in finland or singapore or korea or norway or wherever they are, they talk about charter schools, they seem to forget the places they like our very strong public school system and the best of them trust

teachers and trust schools to do the right thing by their students and give them the kind of help and support and respect that they are entitled to that enables them to do that job. i am kind of hoping that we have been living through the trend time, another one of those panacea moments, let's holes teachers feet to the fire and see what happens. that victory of the school board guy in los angeles, he beats -- and million of those dollars contributed by michael bloomberg now that he is leaving new york wants to become mayor of los angeles. what is michael bloomberg care about a los angeles school board election? the fact that that candidate is able to win, that incumbent

asking the right questions, that is important, i bring you a fact that is either inspiring or depressing, a friend of mine who is close to the obama administration read the book, the secretary of education, would agree with every word, that is inspiring in one sense. here is somebody else who shares those eyes because if this is what he believes why is he doing what he is doing? [applause] >> the commissioner of education in new jersey would agree with every word in the book and stated publicly at times high-quality, early childhood is important, what is emphasized

and regulations that are written and the sense that it is spread out is not at all in that direction. [applause] >> i can't tell if they are applauding for this. i don't want you to fall into what policy trap. the trapped is to believe tomorrow is going to be just like today only a little more so. i take you back to ancient history, january of 2011, and if i told you a merchant in tunis set up the corruption of the government in that society, set themselves on fire and bring down the news from government and ignite the revolution across countries, the academic equivalent of a loony bin but that is what happened.

that is how change happens, how no child left behind happened. it was a big change. i don't know what is going to happen next year or the year after but i do hope this book and what i have to say talking about the book put the little finger on the scale, up a finger that speaks to the importance of teaching and learning and good curriculum, that core of the story. >> and i think overcoming the sense of an awful lot of educators who are responsible for other urban districts, nothing really happens educationally until first grade and the supervised play is nice and it helps with the babysitting problems of working parents and that is what preschool is. overcoming that point of view

which i am afraid is pretty wide spread through the educational community is a very important step. >> i hope it is becoming less true. i wrote a book called sandbox investment about the boards of preschool and asked to give a talk to of bunch of school board members and superintendents in california and one school board member says if we are going to make preschool part of the program how are we going to get those teachers to be as good as our regular teachers? and i said, you know, great preschool teachers are the best teachers in the world. the real question is are they going to teach your teachers how to do a better job teaching? one of those moments, i was talking to the county superintendent who invited me last week, people still talk

about that remark. here is one thing that union city does that is really important in that regard, preschool, does preschool really well but all the testing pressure the concern was kindergarten was turning into the new first grade, kids lined up in a rows and one problem was the kids weren't standing for. they had worked in groups, being quiet all the time was not a great idea so they acted out and the teachers thought what kind of revolution are they fomenting in preschool? the system turned out ride around on its years. the master teachers, the teachers in the preschool who worked with a whole community network of private nonprofit for profit city run preschools to create a system, those master teachers worked with kindergarten teachers so now you

have good kindergartens because they look more like preschool. so here is a little secret i share with these folks. good education is preschool education made developmentally appropriate for older kids. that is the best of it. [applause] >> when you walked into a union city classroom you are more likely to see kids working in small groups than you are to see the teacher standing in front of a whole class and that is a difficult thing to teach. of very difficult thing to break a habit is created in schools of education and ordained by supervisors and principals in a lot of places. >> it is hard. when i would sit in the class amended is easy to talk about these groups, kids breaking up into groups, if there are five

or six groups in the class the computer will break down, or you are not going to get this piece of equipment working with the blocks are missing in doing those exercises and some kid is acting out and you have not only the back of your head but all around your head, it is tough but what happens, some teachers really never get it. i think that for many teachers, they can actually accomplish more that way and what i found impressive about being here is i would go to middle school classes and high school classes and watch the same kinds of group projects going on, group exercises, much more of that made sense but there was a lot of breakdown, a lot more discussion. i didn't see and i have a passport.

nobody was following me around. i never saw the teacher just standing there reading a lecture. might be talking for a while but not reading a lecture. and i never saw a student being disengaged blown out of control and that is pretty amazing, you think about adolescence and the conventional wisdom of urban middle schools and high schools, it is supposed to be a scary place and it is an exciting place but it is anything but scary. it is an exciting place because you see kids and teachers respecting one another and doing the work together. >> the last question i ask is about the fact that there are lots of places, lots of city districts where the focus on the third and fourth grade language arts test has produced a funk

and young american kids, eighth and ninth years old are doing pretty well compared to kids across the globe. then it breaks down and did isn't true by the time they are 13 and there's a lack of the engagement or lack of interest, it is textbook driven end of chapter test construction, that is what seems so different in union city. >> it is true generally. we know a lot less in milan high school and what to do about elementary school but i also think at this moment one of the new trends which is not bad as trends go is a right to read by third grade. that is as far as it goes and it would work revolution in many schools but the assumption is it

follows automatically. most people hung out in classrooms, the books you read in fourth grade are a whole lot harder than the books you read in third grade. i had no case spanish. i was happy reading of fourth grade kids novel. they were interesting. 100 page novel, no pictures. would change from third grade. people stopped and say we have done great. this is part of the work, you have to work your way up the ladder. it is harder and harder to persuade teachers in middle school and high school to break out of old ways of doing things that require role models or tutors or mentors or the ports of all kinds to make that happen and it is not going to happen overnight and won't happen with every teacher and won't be perfect. this high school, it is amazing that 90% of these kids are

graduating. but it is worrisome that many of these kids are graduating as proficient kids. they are passing the test and getting out of here and enrolling in college. let me tell you a dirty little secret about the high school exam. if you just passed the exam you are a ninth grade students. if you just passed that exam. you will wind up in the remedial class. once of the remedial classes the odds that you are going to drop out are great. this is the next challenge. it is appropriate to pause for more than a moment and say 90% graduation rate. urban general high school comes close to -- new york talking about 62%, talking about 45%

latino graduation rate in new york, 45%, 90%. everybody in the system knows the story isn't here. the next step is higher and higher expectations for students for the junior as 80s to become standard fare not just for kids who say i know i want to go to a fancy college but all the kids and i am not telling tales. this is something if everybody in this high school nose and appreciates what is great about it, people are going to work to make that happen and when i said to john that is what i was talking about when i said i want to come back in five years and this will be a great high school. there is a will, the energy, the community commitment and professional commitments and engage kids and mutual respect

and trust call all the kids are here. people have come up to me all day today. i was doing the pizza party or hanging out with my girls, i got to know the teachers really well, the principal and i was over at middle school, people said thank you for writing the book. so it was a privilege to be here, a life changing experience to be here and in some small way i can take this kind of conversation not just here but in other communities across the country and maybe into those offices in washington as well then i will have paid back the care and hospitality i received when i was here so thank you

very much. [applause] >> i dare not ask the question, it is appropriate we ask members of the audience, let me just remind you that this is being taped for c-span so if you have a question, don't ask it until the microphone is in your hand, please. i don't mean to scare anybody. over here. >> just a comment. i am a teacher at union city high and i am proud to teach here and i really think one reason we are successful is we are like a family and -- [applause]

>> it is nice to hear your support of public schools in general because charter schools are not the answer and i don't think any charter school can accomplish the things that we have done here and we will continue to do so i really appreciate everything. thank you. [applause] >> i just want to say one remarkable thing, got a family nature of this place, a lot of students were here and teachers are member a year ago and there they are and the students shouting and what? if we had shouted the name of the principal, there would be a word that i would not want to repeat. it is a serious, wonderful community and takes a ton of

work to maintain it and a ton of love to maintain it. that is something everybody here gets. >> thank you for being here. countries around the world that you mentioned where education is very successful, beyond respecting educators, educators are actually celebrated, we don't do that, is that part of the success. >> it is important when i talk to teachers here they talk about their kids, not just their students but almost in a literal sense their kids. people grew up here, come from nearby here. america is yet to figure out

that the kids in places like union city are the future. the country has a choice. we can provide an awful education for the mass so many places do and we are going to pay the price. they are not going to be great lives and we are not going to be a great company or a strong political -- this place has figured out the importance of just that kind of commitment, connection to people in this community your kids in this community. the book is a celebration of union city and they are going to be -- i am trying to be the critical fringe here. it is not all roses as you heard my comment a second ago. it is great in a way that is not

unique. other places of learned the same lessons. nobody knows about them. in those towns the teachers are celebrated as well. and i know how hard it is to teach and how painful it is to hear chris christie talk about teachers as drug dealers as he did a few years ago. unbelievably appalling image to use, folks who work their tails off, it is important the community knows or respects values, good teaching, and good teachers. >> good evening. i am on the board of the jersey city public schools system. hearing a lot of what you said tonight is very reassuring. we have a new superintendent and

we think we're on the right track and if we stay focused and keep on doing the right thing, the basic things you talked about we have a good chance of turning our system around. my question is how much does the adoption of a core curriculum standards change the game as far as the challenging curriculum you talked about? >> i want to say a word not about jersey city but school systems in general because one point i didn't make is how important stability is. in too many cities school boards pick a superintendent who says i am going to work america. i have the answer. he comes in and changes everything and there is no miracle, there's another election and a group of insurgents come in and say fire the bomb, bring in somebody else, this person has the

miracle and the average urban schools superintendent last fewer than three years. you can't do anything as complicated as a school system in three years. there are two superintendents' both sitting in the room tonight, 1989 is 24 years and counting. [applause] no supermen here which is another of those tropes, solid, hard-working folks who are doing the work, a political system and the community system that appreciates that and is patient to see what is happening so i hope that is true in jersey city as well. in a lot of ways it will be interesting, interesting is a word that educators should be a

little shaky about, to see what the substances look like developing around a common course standard but the standards themselves are very similar to what it is you are expecting kids to do. if you are in a state where basically all the teaching is a road memorization and the test is multiple choice, all just math problems, 1734 is your third grade problem you are going to have trouble adapting. i have looked at the third grade, first high-stakes tests the kids take. they are all word problems. there isn't a single number problem in the book. it is all word problems. the passages they're being asked to read and interpret a tough, they're writing to read your four paragraph essays and a half hour. if kids are there and have many

aspects of that testing regime particularly the fetishize in of those tests and the amount of energy it drains from good teaching right now, when i was talking to my kids in washington's pull what is going on, i was hearing about the math drills and they were tired of writing because the writing they were doing was so formulaic. that is too bad. in terms of encouraging kids to think, to read complex passages, i think new jersey is one of the states that is best prepared to move in the direction of common standards. the craziness, one of the crazinesss of no child left behind was washington said you guys figure out what you want to teach and we will be up on you if you don't do. it is backwards. all the state's got together and said here is what everybody does because one of my favorite third

graders is now in iowa. fractions in union city, fractions in des moines, same fractions. old man of the sea survives in land and can swim all the way to iowa. now it is up to the state to figure out how to bring students along in ways that aren't as crazily punitive as you have now. you are going to end this, of the great things that is changing is a line between non proficient and proficient goes away and you talk about how much improvement kids make overtime. so much more sense. another little secret is there is no such thing as proficiency. some egghead in trenton dreamed this up and produced a number. it is called 200 day. it could be called 210 tomorrow and 190 the day after depending

on how the superintendent is screened. we don't want kids to fail so drop the score. it is not a magic formula. what is magic is watching kids do better over time. so i think it is a miserable time because new jersey, the old tests, a new curriculum and everything going on at once. i have been sitting in washington i would have said there ought to be a moratorium protesting for a couple years until you get the common core standards. actually make it happen. open bracket applause]

>> >> diana t. trade union city high school but i am also teacher of the year and union city district teacher of the year. i would like to thank you for hearing this because this school is our home and how you have in our premier book if you build it they will come. with the great educational leader, the fantastic administration here, they are the driving rain to this moment and our children are our hearts and successful in this pulling you kept reading your book i have to say. i am very impressed. thank you. >> would you write something on the book afterwards? thank you. i am a professor but i have also been a journalist and i keep hearing -- i kept hearing all these things.

i kept nudging around, john said thank you for sale all those things. it wasn't -- it was lots and lots -- i couldn't find anybody who had a bad word to say about him. that is the principal? that is pretty astonishing and i do think taking the great building and the principle, the staff, teachers are making the great home out of it, think about the performers weaker earlier in the night, the drummers who were out side, the word came to your principal this morning i want david, it is a celebration and out of 30 seconds later you get the drum corps halt their entertaining us. it is an amazing place and all of you deserve credit for what it is you have done. [applause] and congratulations on that.

is really something. >> thank you for coming. i am a parent industry. i know your focus is on of the schools but we do have a gifted intelligence program in new york city which i am sure you had a chance to spend some time at the woodrow wilson school. my question is not so much why is that school succeeding so well because that answer is clear. my question is what is your feeling about the integrated nature of that curriculum that is taught there and can we get the next leg up in union city by seeking to generalize that model? >> i will say when i was here, i wished that i could clone myself. i would want to be in the school

or the administration office or union hill. i was hanging out with john paul gonzalez, an astonishing teacher at the freshman academy and would want to see what was happening in the port of entry class in high school so i didn't spend time in the gifted and talented program. let me answer your question in generalities. , kids respond to expectations and what it is the brightest kids can do is something other kids can get excited about. one of the sad consequences of a no child behind fixation on reading and math is the farther down the academic ladder you get the more drilling, drilling, drilling of reading and math there is, the more drilling there is the mortgage willis the occasion is. the chapter about washington's school in the winter and spring

in the book is called where thought comes to die and be reborn. it is not a very joyful time to be over if there. you ask those exams that school has come to life totally and yes indeed, the kind of creativity you can nurture within a school, if woodrow wilson could be an incubator for a new curriculum ideas that could spread elsewhere i think that is great because it is a school that does represent the highest expectations and there is no reason they can't be more broadly applied. my experience in whether you are teaching preschoolers or grad students is that kids won't rise the level of expectation you set for them. that is for the district is doing and the continuing challenge for the district's even as imus celebrant time also

-- i hope you keep pushing that. >> i am one of the educators a union city high school as well. your book has definitely captured the essence of union city education. but while we are basking in the glow of your book with all the other books about education that have been proliferated over the past several years you feel that your book and perhaps yourself are making any inroads with the government processes that control the educational system so that perhaps this can continue in the district will follow as well? >> you ask it the right way. is really district by district by district. that is the question, that is the right question. the answer is yes. i say that, this is -- we have a kind of session yesterday at

rutgers with a group of state policymakers and superintendents from the state office of education and like that. they were engaged to hear the story and the generalizations so what intrigued me was the number of people who came up to me and said this is exciting. we would love to talk more with you and have you spend a little time with us, we're interested in doing something because i think that the district level this is a moment when educators are sincerely interested in rebuilding urban schools and understanding what there is to learn. you ask the superintendent he will tell you there are a score of districts around the region and increasingly around the country wondering what it is doing. and want to know about the port of entry program and how that is working or what the gifted challenge program or face to face an and the great preschool

program developed out of 30 schools. i do think place by place change will happen. will something happen in washington? washington, those guys miss out on a lesson about taking their turn, control their e motion, doesn't act out, use your words, all that stuff in preschool instilling in kids. i don't know what is going to go on in washington. at the local districts when i'm talking to superintendent and school board members i think so. i think the story i am in telling about union city and other places as well focused on union city says it is a success story but it is a hard work

story. you can do it if you are willing to put in the sweat equity to make it happen. that is the story and a lot of educators, you guys work really hard, are willing to make that happen. that is my hope. i write a book like this mostly as the entry ticket to a national conversation about how to build strong schools so if i can be useful in other places, if i can get a handful of people in other communities across the country to say we want to try this and talk to people in union city and talk to gordon mcginnis and do a whole bunch of things, then i have done my job. the book is the first act. what happens as you are suggesting we will see. fingers crossed.

>> i am a speech therapist -- i am so excited to be here and to hear everything and i hear teachers talking about being a family. i worked there for 26 years and i love everyone i teach with but do you have any problems when it came to the unions as far as meeting with the union president? did everyone get on board and i above to hear about your administration that everyone got on board. we haven't had a superintendent logger in two years. i had 12 superintendents, probably had 15 principles. it is so discouraging and i love being here and i am happy i met you but i need some hope. i had to teach for a really long

time. >> of chris christie has his way much longer. >> exactly. >> i really empathize with you. i was talking to a teacher who has been teaching science in california, a very tough town and he tries his best but there are other good teachers, the school is falling apart, there is no leadership. there will be kids who really want to learn, and kids who are just not there. they are not going to be there. they will let make life miserable for everybody else. what can i do? i brought that question to someone wiser than i am about education who said unless you get support built into the school, unless the school really becomes connected to the community that teacher can't do it alone. you can't do it in isolation.

let me talk generally about unions because one of the things people will say to me is this is a district in which the union has worked pretty closely pretty hand in glove with the administration to make things happen and the one example i tell you about is when kindergarten teachers complain to the union rep, what are they saying they should be doing? get out of here. are there union issues in this town? absolutely. there will always be tensions but what happened here and what happened in other places with strong unions, i think about a town in california where unions were so bitter they hung a sign on the road outside of town, new teachers be where, this school district is unfriendly to you. it is angels compared to that.

come back ten years later and everybody is talking to everybody else. what they did was bring the union to the bargaining table, not just about money but program and policy. you guys are educator's, not just in it for the job security. let's talk through what it is week think we need to do. more and more that is happening and that is a great thing. it is just essentials that unions generally become part of the reform conversation because that is where we are going and ought to be going otherwise you'll get folks from outside shoving an agenda down districts's throats. the teachers, the school's, there's going to be tension. there is a natural alliance because end of the day, i wrote a book called kids first and if you sit down with a bunch of adults in the room and there is

a facilitator and that facilitator says okay, let's focus on the kids and like a parent let's focus on the kids, let's go back to that curriculum teacher engage students, built around that, that is why we are here. these are adult games, stop playing games, the union folks and superintendents and parents were kids once. all of the folks in this business are in this business because they want to help kids. unless you are running a chain of charter schools you don't go in this business to get rich. you have got to work with that carrying and make that carrying happen. i do know this. got to figure out ways to stop that churning because if you have superintendents' coming and going like that it is not going to happen. my guess is the union and the

school board and the administration really need some kind of hard session about what it is they are doing and they are all hoping for the best and killing of a good district. teachers lives are importance but what matters is you are wasting all of those kids's lives because of the adult games. more than a shame, it is a crime. >> one more question. >> i am a 12 grade assistant at union city high school. why did you choose this high school? >> great question. why did i choose union city? that is a long story. the last book i rose was a book about five big ideas, one of

which was what are the things that are really essential to give kids a decent shot in light? wasn't focusing on schools because i was saying let's start with rigorous schools and look and all the rest of. one of the big ideas was great education, great preschool so i went to a guy named steve, co-director of a center in rutgers, everything about her the education, where should i go? go to union city? okay. go to union city. so i set off to a union city but didn't go on my own because it is the clannish place. professor shows up and says hi, tell me about your schools, not sure what the reception would be, but i have outage for guy, a guy sitting over here who came with me and said he is a good guy and gordon is somebody the district knows well and trusts

well. i spent some time looking at those preschools and i knew up through a grade reading and math test scores were really good so i was in one of the schools that has preschool through eighth grade program, i am going to duck into a classroom and see what they are like and i was impressed by what i saw. the nice thing about being a professor is these things called sabbaticals. you spend a year doing stuff away from home. why not come back here and spend a year and see what is happening. and in great school systems. to their credit superintendent, top administration, the mayor,

school board all said it is a great idea. bring your hands. they all said we trust you. go any place you want. it was really a privilege to be here and i hope i have turned their trust and a book i hope you read. i will say this particularly the high school student's name that i got, any want to read about this book? if you buy the book which for somebody in high school, a big deal, you don't like it. and how markets work. it is not a love letter, it is of long lead therefrom a guy who spent a good chunk of time here. it know what i was going to get into, really became attached to

the place and what i was comparing union city to, and the folks who are going to be in my life for the rest of my life. thank you. [applause] >> is there a nonfiction author or boat you would like to see on booktv? send an e-mail at booktv@c-span.org or tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >> you are watching booktv on c-span2. here is our prime time lineup for tonight's. starting at 7:00 eastern, u.s. engage in to the middle east should focus on promoting american technology, trade and education. a panel on issues associated with veterans returning home from the william coldy military

symposium followed by our afterwards program, the dispensable nation, american foreign policy in retreat with former cia advisor juice isday. prime-time programming concludes at 11:00 with george michael. is put his lone wolf terror and the rise of leaderless resistance. looks at terrorists like timothy mcveigh and a recent boston marathon bombers. visit booktv.org for more on this weekend's television schedule. >> welcome to you on booktv located near the u.s./mexico border on the colorado river this arizona city of about 100,000 has an economy based on the agricultural industry that provides 90% of the lettuce crop, military spending and tourism but also struggles with an unemployment rate of 26%. one of the highest in the

country. with the help of our time warner cable partners for the next half-hour we will travel to yuma to meet with local lawyers and members of the literary community to help us understand the culture of the region. we begin our special look at you love with a 1947 publicity stop that had a goal of getting a local air base reopened. .. >> the same thing was happening with the proving ground. it was closing down. and the little town of yuma had about 9,000 population, and that